Saint Michael’s nursing leadership from L-R: Malori Clarke-Cameron, director of Respiratory Therapy; Reinaldo Montero, director of Nursing; CEO Dr. Alan Sickles; Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Bisco-Flora; Joan Florczyk, director of Nursing – Medical/Surgical; Marie DeSimone, director of Perioperative Services
NEWARK, NJ – Saint Michael’s Medical Center today announced that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as a 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ recipient.
This distinction places Saint Michael’s among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading marketplace connecting patients and providers.
Saint Michael’s has captured Healthgrade’s Patient Safety Excellence Award™ for each of the last four years. Saint Michael’s is also the only hospital in Newark, the only one in Essex County and one of only 13 in the state to earn the award.
“We’re proud to acknowledge and celebrate efforts to improve and maintain safe care, especially in light of the pandemic,” said Saint Michael’s CEO Dr. Alan Sickles. “All staff take safety seriously and remain watchful to avoid compromises in delivery of care.“
Dr. Sickles explained that the hospitals’ recent “Culture of Safety” Survey noted that Saint Michael’s excels in teamwork, communication openness and overall manager support to staff.
Healthgrades has also named Saint Michael’s America’s 100 Best for Cardiac Care, America’s 100 Best Prostate Surgery and has awarded the hospital its Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award and Coronary Intervention Excellence Award.
Saint Michael’s is a member of Prime Healthcare, which has more patient safety excellence awards for seven years in a row than any other health system (2016-2022) in the nation, according to Healthgrades.
“Through our 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Awards, we seek to recognize hospitals that excel in providing top-quality care for their patients while preventing serious injuries during hospital stays,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer and head of Data Science, Healthgrades. “We are proud to name Saint Michael’s as a 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient and look forward to their continued efforts to make patient safety a priority.”
During the study period (2018 through 2020), 170,231 potentially preventable patient safety events occurred among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals, according to statistics calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology based primarily on the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality technical specifications for MedPAR data years 2018 through 2020 averaged over three years for Medicare patients only.
Healthgrades found that just four patient safety indicators accounted for 74% of all patient safety events: hip fracture due to an in-hospital fall, collapsed lung resulting from a procedure/surgery, pressure or bed sores acquired in-hospital, and catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in-hospital.
Healthgrades also found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades 2022 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ were, on average:
- 55.8% less likely to experience an in-hospital fall resulting in hip fracture, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
- 52.6% less likely to experience a collapsed lung resulting from a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
- 66.2% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
- 65.8% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at nonrecipient hospitals
If all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to the Healthgrades Patient Safety Award Recipients, on average, 100,189 patient safety events could have been avoided.
Consumers can visit healthgrades.com for more information on how Healthgrades measures hospital quality and access the complete methodology here.